Viña del Mar: Day 2

I woke up around 10am on Sunday, our second day in Valpo, and I was one of the early birds. Everybody was pretty tired/hungover, so most people didn't get up until around noon. After everybody had showered and eaten and beautified themselves, a group of us decided to head over to Viña del Mar, a neighboring city known for its beautiful gardens, sandy beaches, and picturesque surroundings. We walked down to the metro station and after several very confusing minutes at the ticket booth, we were on our way.

Sign at the metro station.

You can take a horse drawn carriage on a ride through the city.

Once we got there we immediately wanted to head for the beach, the only problem being that we had no clue where the beach was...But after about 20 minutes of walking in circles and asking random people of the street, we finally found it. There were several locations perfect for taking pictures among the rocks with the sea in the background.

A blocked off area where people aren't allowed to enter.

Water under the bridge ;)

Rocks, the ocean, and a far-off castle.

We spent a good portion of the day at the beach, lounging in the sun, recovering from the night before, and looking at some awesome sand sculptures. A few of us decided to eat lunch at a local Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita and I decided to order a Pisco Sour, which was delicious. I'm still not quite used to being allowed to purchase alcohol, but it's convenient. :) After lunch we went to an artesanía (a market type thing where they sell artisan crafts) and looked around before returning home.

Some of the rocks had bible verses written on them in white.
They were quite beautiful.

One of the sand sculptures of a gorilla.

Sitting on a boardwalk along the beach. Ana (from Colombia), Julia & Jacqueline (from Germany), Me, & Katerine (from France)

My day in Viña was much more laid back and realizing than my first day in Valpo, which was eactly what I needed, but I definitely plan on going back and exploring some more!

Valparaiso: Day 1

Last weekend was a 3-day weekend so I decided to visit Valparaiso with about 20 or so other exchange students. Valparaiso is a port town about an hour and a half away from Santiago, and many Chileans claim it is the heart of Chile. We left at 10am on Saturday and once we arrived we headed off to our hostel. One bus ride and a small trek later, we arrived at our brightly colored hostel and were divided into rooms; my room had 12 other people in it.

View of the port.

View of the houses on the hill.

After everybody had settled in, we all set off to visit La Sebastiana, one of Pablo Neruda' s homes. Now, in case you didn't know, Valpo is essentially built on a giant hill, and Pablo Neruda's home has one of the most amazing views of the city and water, which means we spent about 20 minutes walking up extremely steep hills. But the views of the city and the graffiti were amazing and, after what was probably one of the most horrifying hikes of my life, we finally arrived at the house. It's a very peculiar home, with 5 floors and peculiar rooms, but the views were indeed spectacular.

Some brightly colored houses and a brightly colored car :)

Street view.

La Sebastiana, Pablo Neruda's house.

After the tour, we headed to the market to grab some lunch. Since we were at the top of Valpo and the market was at the bottom, everybody climbed onto a bus. Now, this might actually have been one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had. Buses in that area are basically glorified vans, so we had 32 people crammed into seats and about 20 people standing pretty much wherever there was floor space. As if that wasn't uncomfortable enough, we then had to start our descent through the steep and winding roads of the city. This driver was taking hairpin turns at what felt like 60 mph and people are literally flying around the bus. I actually had to shut my eyes some of the time because I didn't want to see the 100ft drop-offs at the side of the road. However we did make it safely to the bottom of the hill and it was certainly better than walking!

View of the market.

A group of guys that starting playing in the middle of lunch.
What the heck is that piano like instrument?
It has a tube that you blow into...

When everybody had finished eating, we walked around a bit and saw the sites. We visited this giant statue/monument to the Chilean military which was really cool and saw a lot of murals and graffiti work. We even got to ride up one of Valpo's famous ascensores, which technically means elevator. But in Valparaiso it refers to these large outdoor elevator-like contraptions that take you up giant hills. Kind of like a ski lift, but on the ground. They are a little scary, but a quick and cheap way to get to the top of a hill. (It cost around 20 cents.)

Me standing in front of the military monument.

Graffiti

View of the ascensor from the bottom.

Once we returned to our hostel (after walking down several flights of very sketchy looking stairs in dark alleys) we had an asado or barbeque. And waited to head out the club. In Chile, nobody goes out the clubs until at least midnight, and even that is a little early, but people start drinking around 10pm, which is exactly what everybody did. Lucky for us, there was a liquor store right across the street. One thing I have to say, is that liquor can be super cheap here. I bought basically a fifth of this Mango Pisco mixed drink and a quart of pineapple juice for $7. The Mango Pisco would have cost $15 alone back home, but I am certainly not complaining! So after 2 hours of drinking Mango Pisco, wine, sangria, and of course straight shots of Pisco, everybody was ready to head out to the club and do some dancing. The club was named Huevo and had 5 floors for dancing, all with different types of music. We got a free drink with our ticket so I got a Piscola which is just Pisco and coke. Even though I'm not a huge fan of dancing, it was a lot of fun and a group of us ended up leaving around 3:30am, which is actually a bit early, but we had had a long day!

Me, Katerine, & Mike hanging out in the hostel before going out.
I think Katerine was a little prendida (colombian slang for tipsy)... :)

Club Huevo (which means egg...)

A group of us inside the club.

And so ended my first day in Valparaiso. :)

Cerro Santa Lucia

Yesterday I went to the central campus of my university to get my ID card. Since it was a beautiful day I decided to walk around, and I realized that the Cerro Santa Lucia was just one metro station away. Basically, it is a giant hill with all these pathways and stairs that wind up to the top and a spectacular view of the city.

Base of the cerro.

The second tier.

It takes about 15-30 minutes to climb, depending on how often you decide to stop and take pictures and explore side pathways. :) There is this huge fountain at the first plaza that was super impressive and all throughout the cerro people have written and carved their names into a lot of the trees and rocks, which actually looks pretty cool.

Fountain on the first plaza.

Names carved and written on a tree.

I was worried that it would be really exhausting climbing this huge hill, but it was not that bad and there was plenty to see. Plus, the view from the top was worth the climb. You could see pretty far out into the city, and if it weren't for the smog, you could probably see even further.

On the right is the main entrance building to
the central campus of my university, you
can kind of see the jesus/god statue on top.

A view of the National Library from above!

This is a view from maybe 3/4 of the way to the top,
I'm trying to show all the levels of the hill.

Me and a view of the park.

All in all it was time well spent and I look forward to climbing the Cerro San Cristobal which is supposed to be bigger and better! :)

Santa Lucia

Yesterday I decided to go to una feria (where you would buy artisan crafts and other touristy stuff) in Santa Lucia with two other exchange students, Mike from Wisconsin and Katerine from Paris. When we met up at the Santa Lucia metro station, we ran into some of Mike's friends who were planning on taking a tour bus though downtown Santiago. We decided to join them, and we spent some time together walking around and taking pictures of the scenery, but in typical Chilean style, the bus still hadn't shown up after an hour of waiting so we decided to just head straight to the feria. It turns out that on Sunday's, Santiago is pretty much a ghost town, with many shops being closed. Luckily, most of the stands we were interested in were open, and we all ended up getting some shopping done.

National library of Chile.

Me standing in front of an Easter Island look-a-like statue.

Purses hanging from a stall in the feria.

A warm alpaca jacket and some gloves I purchased at the feria.

Once we had finished shopping, we had planned to climb to the top of the Cerro Santa Lucia which is essentially a giant hill that lets you look out over the city and see some amazing views. But unfortunately, it decided to start raining pretty hard at that point, so we decided to seek shelter in some nearby shops until some of Mike's friends from Colombia came to join us for dinner. Both Mike and Katerine were in the mood for Peruvian food, and I had never tried it, so we decided to eat at a pretty nice looking Peruvian restaurant. They recommended that I try the Ají de Gallina, which is a specialty in Peru and incredibly delicious. Despite it's peculiar color, I was really glad I tried it!

Jeraldin and Jhosep.

Mike and Katerine at the restaurant.

Ají de Gallina

All in all in was a good day and a lot of fun. And I was especially happy since the Colombians complemented me on my Spanish! :)